Five ways to improve teamwork in your office

Monday 11th March 2019

Businesses face many challenges every single day, and in order to overcome them, you need to make the best possible use of arguably the most powerful asset at your disposal: your workforce.

If you are able to get the individuals in your company working together as effectively as possible, your enterprise will considerably increase its chances of success.

With that in mind, here are five strategies worth trying to encourage and optimise teamwork in your business…

Help people feel comfortable with each other
People are unlikely to do their best work if they don’t feel entirely comfortable or familiar with their fellow team members. One of the key steps towards successful teamwork is ensuring that colleagues are happy in each other’s company and have the confidence to come forward with ideas or questions.

There are various ways to help people become more comfortable around their co-workers, such as arranging social activities and team-building exercises outside of work. Even brief but regular events, such as weekly lunches, can go a long way towards creating and strengthening bonds between team members.

Lead from the top
The people at the top of the business shouldn’t expect employees to adhere to standards and methods they aren’t upholding themselves.

If positive, productive teamwork is a vital part of how your business functions, leaders and directors should be happy to get involved in activities like brainstorms, discussion sessions and meetings with the rest of the workforce. This helps to ensure that everyone, at every level of the firm, is in tune with current developments and how the enterprise is moving forward.

Foster a non-judgemental culture
Effective teamwork is all about people listening to one another, taking other people’s ideas onboard and having the confidence to put forward their own thoughts, opinions and suggestions.

These things can’t happen if some members of the workforce have concerns about their contributions being dismissed or considered less valid than those of their colleagues. If you want to get the best results out of your teams, make sure everyone is committed to the principles of welcoming their colleagues’ ideas and not passing judgement.

Recognise good work
When successful teamwork generates truly valuable results for the business, everyone involved should get proper recognition for their contribution. Whether it’s verbal acknowledgement of people’s hard work, or more tangible rewards such as bonuses, making an effort to praise employees for their achievements can do wonders for staff morale and engagement.

Failing to recognise individuals and teams for their good work can have the opposite effect, potentially leading to dissatisfaction in the workplace.

Set clear goals
Teams should always have a clear understanding of the objectives they are working towards and their benchmarks for success. If people don’t have a sense of structure and direction in their work, productivity will inevitably suffer.

Once again, this needs to come from the top of the business, with senior leaders and line managers taking responsibility for ensuring people understand their roles and responsibilities.
This will put your firm in the strongest possible position to get the best out of your teams and achieve lasting growth.